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2009 July 26, Southern California, MA1 322


    This case was given to me first hand by my father, brother, and friend while they were on a backpacking trip. 

The friend has a PhD in Biophysics and is now a laser engineer, (who works for my father, who is also a laser engineer.) His report is as follows: 

“On July 26 2009, three of us were laying out on a tarp looking up at the stars on the night of an overnight backpack trip up San Gorgonio Mountain (in the San Bernardino mountains in Southern California). It was dark and we were camping ~3/4 of the way up the mountain. We all saw what looked like a satellite traveling across the sky. Then it looked like it stopped and started coming straight at us growing in size and brightness. We all then hastily started to get up to get out of the way in fear it was going to hit us!
But then it retreated, subsiding, reducing to its original size and brightness. Then it continued on its original trajectory across the sky. We all looked at each other and asked and verified we all saw it.

We think it was probably a reflection of the sun off a satellite that started to shine right at us for a moment then angle away. It probably looked like it came straight at us because it was growing in size. It probably never stopped moving across the sky, but just its movement was overshadowed by the growth in size/brightness.“

My father’s report mentions that he saw the object stop and remain as a star in the sky. That is why I’m giving an MA1 rather than a FB1. He mentions: 

“It was flying and getting brighter, as if it was coming towards us. Then it traversed the sky and dimmed, but stopped. Then, it never moved again and just faded away.“